About this opportunity
Pen Mfg lists this Manufacturing Engineering & Estimating Manager – Fabrication opportunity in anaheim, California. Review the employer’s description below for duties, qualifications and application requirements.
Job description
About Pen Manufacturing
Pen Manufacturing is an established Southern California metal fabrication and contract manufacturing business serving industrial, infrastructure, aerospace/defense, and other demanding customers.
We are investing in the company's sales, engineering, manufacturing capabilities, and equipment with the goal of building a larger, technology-enabled American manufacturing platform.
This role will have significant influence over how we engineer, quote, launch, and grow our most important customer programs.
Pen Manufacturing is seeking a senior, hands‑on Manufacturing Engineering & Estimating Manager who combines deep sheet metal fabrication experience with DFM, estimating, production planning, and direct customer interaction.
This is not a desk‑only engineering management role . We are looking for someone who has spent years close to the work and understands how fabricated sheet metal products actually get made. You should be able to work directly with customers, estimators, engineers, and the production floor to take a product from drawing or concept through quoting, planning, first article, and repeat production.
The right person will be equally comfortable reviewing a SolidWorks model with a customer, identifying DFM issues, determining how the product should be manufactured, building a realistic estimate and routing, planning material and work‑center requirements, and working with the shop to solve problems during first articles and production ramp.
What You’ll Own
Serve as the technical lead for several of Pen’s largest and most strategic customer programs
Work directly with customer engineering and purchasing teams to understand requirements, resolve design issues, and improve manufacturability
Review drawings, CAD models, specifications, and RFQs for feasibility and DFM
Lead estimating and ensure quotes reflect realistic material, labor, routing, tooling, outside processing, and production assumptions
Manage and develop Pen’s estimating and engineering resources
Translate new customer programs from RFQ and prototype into repeatable production
Develop manufacturing plans, routings, work instructions, material requirements, sequencing, and production requirements
Understand how new work will flow through lasers/turrets, press brakes, welding, hardware, assembly, and outside processing before it is released to production
Partner with Sales on technical discovery for major new opportunities
Partner with Operations and Production to ensure jobs are released and scheduled intelligently
Identify capacity and work‑center constraints, tooling requirements, automation opportunities, and equipment needs
Support first articles, prototypes, and production ramp‑ups
Review completed jobs against estimates and improve future costing and production assumptions
Build strong technical relationships with customers and help expand existing accounts
What We’re Looking For
Required:
10+ years of hands‑on experience in sheet metal fabrication, precision metal fabrication, or a similar contract manufacturing environment
Strong understanding of laser cutting, punching, press brake forming, welding, hardware insertion, assembly, and outside processing
Significant experience estimating and costing fabricated sheet metal productsl
Strong hands‑on DFM and manufacturing engineering experience
Ability to read and critique engineering drawings, CAD models, tolerances, and specifications
SolidWorks or similar 3D CAD experience
Experience taking imperfect customer drawings/models and translating them into practical, repeatable manufacturing processes
Comfortable working directly with customers on technical and manufacturing issues
Strong understanding of labor standards, routings, material planning, sequencing, work‑center capacity, and production planning
Experience supporting products from RFQ and first article through production ramp and recurring manufacturing
Willingness to be hands‑on and spend significant time on the production floor
Must work on‑site in Anaheim, CA
Strongly Preferred:
Experience in a high‑mix / low‑to‑medium‑volume job shop
Aerospace, defense, data center, industrial equipment, electronics enclosure, or infrastructure manufacturing experience
AS9100 manufacturing environment experience
ERP/MRP experience
Experience managing estimators or manufacturing engineers
Experience as a senior manufacturing engineer, manufacturing engineering manager, technical program manager, estimator/engineering manager, or similar hands‑on role
CNC programming, nesting, or fabrication software experience
Experience helping grow strategic customer accounts through engineering and DFM support
Who Will Do Well Here
You are probably a fit if you have spent your career close to the work and developed expertise across engineering, estimating, planning, and production rather than specializing in only one of them.
You don't need someone else to tell you whether a part can be manufactured. You can look at the drawing or model, understand the required processes, walk the floor, talk to the people making it, identify the problems, estimate the work, and develop a practical production plan.
You also understand that great manufacturing engineering is customer‑facing. Customers often need more than a build‑to‑print supplier. They need a manufacturing partner who can identify problems before production, improve designs, and help them successfully scale a product.
If you have grown from the shop floor, CNC programming, estimating, or hands‑on sheet metal manufacturing engineering into a senior technical or leadership role, we are particularly interested in speaking with you. A large team‑management background is not required. Deep manufacturing judgment is.
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Worksite address
anaheim, CA, 92808, US
Who can apply
Review the original listing for work authorization, qualifications and employer requirements.